The school, citing safety, had said no to an event planned on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, but a judge’s ruling last week allowed it to go ahead.
A pro-Palestinian student group gathered to mourn the lives lost in the war in Gaza on Monday, following a federal judge’s ruling last week against the University of Maryland’s plan to block it.
The court battle over the vigil and other events at Maryland was unusual, but universities across the country have struggled with how to handle Oct. 7, the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Student groups sympathetic to either the Israelis and the Palestinians used the anniversary to host speakers, teach-ins and protests at campuses across the country, from Boston to Los Angeles. In advance of the day, administrators fretted over how to balance safety with free expression.
At least at Maryland, the university had not struck the right balance, according to a U.S. district judge, Peter J. Messitte.
The school’s administrators had first said they would allow the event, which was organized by the university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. They reversed course last month, citing security concerns, and said they would prohibit all expressive activity by student groups on Oct. 7. In court filings, lawyers for the university said that it had received “credible threats of violence” connected to the pro-Palestinian event.
Students for Justice in Palestine, aided by two other organizations, Palestine Legal and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, sued the university, arguing that it had violated the student group’s First Amendment rights. They portrayed the school as having censored the event after pro-Israel individuals and groups complained and having justified the decision by citing vague safety concerns.
